Received through email. I'm posting this FYI on social conservative causes and charitable status...for anyone who wants to know...
Church Activism in Social Conservative Causes and Charitable Status
by John Pacheco
Ottawa, September 11, 2006 (www.socon.ca/press.html) - Although the social left and the main stream media have attempted to create an environment of fear around church and other charities' involvement in so-called "political" issues like same-sex "marriage" and abortion, the truth is that charities are indeed able to financially participate in shaping the moral and social fabric of our country without losing their charitable status.
As long as the activity is not partisan to any political party, a charity may contribute up to 10% of its revenue to such causes. So says CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) below. Please encourage your pastor or other charitable organization to consider making a modest contribution to further the
Social Conservative agenda. If we give into fear, intimidation, and thuggery, we will never, ever win this fight. Victory never has come and will never come without sacrifice and courage. The sooner we learn this lesson, the sooner we can begin to take back our country.
Here is the relevant section as far as money goes:
9. What expenditure limits does the Income Tax Act impose on political activities? When a charity takes part in political activities, the Act requires that substantially all of its resources must be devoted to charitable activities. The term resources is not defined in the Act, but we consider it to include the total of a charity's financial assets, as well as everything the charity can useto further its purposes, such as its staff, volunteers, directors, and its premises and equipment.
We usually consider substantially all to mean 90% or more. Any charity using at least this amount of its various resources for charitable work can be assured that we will not revoke its registration on the basis that it is not devoting enough of its resources to charitable activities. Therefore, as a general rule,we consider a charity that devotes no more than 10% of its total resources a year to political activities to be operating within the substantially all provision.
However, we recognize that this may have a negative impact on smaller charities. In an effort to alleviate this hardship, we will exercise our discretion and not revoke the registration of smaller charities for the excessive use of their resources on political activities as long as they meet the following administrative guidelines:
Registered charities with less than $50,000 annual income in the previous year can devote up to 20% of their resources to political activities in the current year. Registered charities whose annual income in the previous year was between $50,000 and $100,000 can devote up to 15% of their resources to political activities in the current year. Registered charities whose annual income in the previous year was between $100,000 and $200,000 can devote up to 12% of their resources to political activities in the current year.
Note: These administrative interpretations do not apply for other purposes of the Income Tax Act
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